thempirestwilightfandomcom-20200214-history
Westland Lynx HGR.3 Gunship
The''' Westland Lynx 3 Gunship '''is a development of the Westland Lynx tailored more closely for anti-armour and general gunship duties. Alternatively it could be used as an 11-seat transport aircraft. The aircraft received the unusual "HGR.3" designation indicating it had ground attack and reconnaissance roles. Design The design followed similar lines to the standard Lynx except that it featured the enlarged tailboom of the Westland 30, had more powerful engines and had a tricycle undercarriage as opposed to skids. A great deal of effort went in to improving survivability with additional armour and improved redundancy of key systems. Armament came in the form of two quadruple TOW anti-armour missile mounts on either side of the main fuselage with two twin Stinger AAM launchers on the support struts. In later variants TOW was replaced by the Firestorm ATGM. Some versions were fitted with a 25mm chain gun mounted under the nose with ammunition being fed from a drum in the main cabin. A BAe targeting scope was mounted on the roof of the cockpit to allow the aircraft to hide while targeting its weapons. More commonly however a Westland Gazelle HO.5 would provide targeting information using its mast mounted sighting system. Operators Australia Australia had never been fully happy with the original Lynx in the attack roles and so embraced the Lynx 3 project with open arms. The Lynx HGR.53(AUS) was tailored to Australia's requirements having additional dustproofing measures such as filters over the intakes. The first of 110 aircraft entered service with the Australian Army Air Corps in 1986 and began replacing the first generation Lynxes which were relegated to utility roles. An additional 30 airframes were acquired for the Australian Navy to support Marine operations which were growing in importance with the threat from Indonesia and Chinese expansion in the Pacific. A third variant was acquired for use by the Australian SAS and was known as the Lynx HGR.3(AUS-Special). Only 7 were acquired and these were optimised for supporting covert infiltration and exfiltration. Britain The Army Air Corps operated a fleet of 85 Lynx HGR.3s. The type was never able to fully displace the older Lynx with the British Army because of the latter's agileness in the tight confines of Europe and Canada. The aircraft mainly saw service supporting shock forces using its speed and firepower to fight a way into battle and out again. For this role the aircraft was more often fitted with 68mm SNEB or 70 CRV-7 unguided rockets. South Africa The South Africans saw real potential in the design's strength, firepower and speed having gained considerable combat experience fighting the Namibian Bush War. The South Africans actually acquired two pre-production machines from Westland in 1987 to test them under operational conditions before full deliveries began. The tests were successful but they were used as general troop and utility transports so their full potential was not realized. The South Africans received their first of 78 examples the following year although they played no further part in the fight against the Communists in Namibia. They did see combat against US forces in Canada during the '91 Disaster by which time they had become operational with the very effective Firestorm missile. Like British examples they often flew with South African Westland Gazelle spotter aircraft to mark targets for their missiles. Category:Aircraft